How I write:

Matt Elliott – his 18th book, With The Wind Behind Us, celebrates New Zealand’s sailing reputation

What’s your writing routine?

If I’mresearching or writing to a deadline, I walk my nearly 7-yearold son to school (great fun) then come home and, after some domestic duties, I go to work, trying to make the most of the hours until the end of the school day.

And where do you write?

In a little studio which looks like a tiny cottage, at the back of our house. My wife has used it for dress-making, too. It’s cluttered but cosy and I really switch on to working when I settle down atmy desk.

Can you share a piece of good advice you’ve received about writing?

Keep writing.

What advice do you give to writers starting out?

For a few years now, I have listened to the BBC’s Desert Island Discs podcasts. I suggest new writers listen to the programmes featuring famous authors. Not only do you hear the music they love, but also how they work, inspirations, success and failures.

What kind of books do you like to read for enjoyment?

Having a large record collection, I read a lot of biographies of rock stars but have just started workingmy way through the Tana French crime thrillers. Usually to switch off, I read music magazines and have a subscription to Private Eye.

Do you read physical books or digital ones?

Physical books. They don’t break if they slide off the bed when I fall asleep reading at night.

Do you write in the margins of books? Take notes in a digital version?

Never! Having worked in academic and corporate libraries, and with a wife who is a college librarian, even if I own a book I couldn’t bring myself to write in it.

What ‘‘must-read’’ book have you not read? Go on, fess up.

James Joyce’s Ulysses. I took it on an OE (greatly adding to my luggage weight) and read the 110-page introduction but then only got through 25 pages of the novel.